Grand Forks, N.D. - After taking a day off from the field on Tuesday, the North Dakota football team was back on the Memorial Stadium turf on Wednesday for its fifth practice of the spring season.

The session featured a new coach as former safety Joel Schwenzfeier took part in his first practice as a member of the UND coaching staff. Schwenzfeier will work with the running backs and took over for Jeff Richter, who joined Greg Breitbach's staff at Millersville University.

"Joel is going to be a nice addition to our staff," UND head coach Chris Mussman said. "He has a passion for this program and wanted the opportunity to get into coaching. It will be good to have him back and working with our running backs."

The 20-period session ended with 10 minutes of live work as the team gears towards its first full scrimmage of the season on Saturday. "It took a while to get our emotion and energy going today, but I can see improvement and we are continuing to get better," Mussman said.Notebook- Running back Adam Shaugabay had the longest run of the session - churning out a 15-yard gain before being forced out of bounds.- Sophomore linebacker Will Ratelle had two tackles for loss in a stretch of three-consecutive stops in the backfield by the defense towards the end of the drills.- Sophomore wide receiver Casey Young concluded practice by catching a corner route, then taking it the distance after breaking a shoestring tackle. Young also had two other catches in the live periods. Redshirt freshman Anthony Fletcher was also active, catching three passes.- In the second team period before live drills, redshirt freshman Ryan Bartels completed two long post patterns to Greg Hardin and Kenny Golladay, respectively. Both completions went for 50-plus yards.- Senior placekicker Zeb Miller finally got to do kick some field goals in practice as the special teams emphasis was on placekicking. By our count, Miller made his first four attempts before pushing one from wide right.